This invention relates to an improvement in the tab separator elements used to separate containers such as glass bottles packaged in paperboard carrier cartons. Tab separator elements physically interpose the bottles to reduce the possibility of breakage through direct glass-to-glass contact. They aid in holding the bottles securely in place when the carton is transported from one location to another, and they also keep bottles from falling out of the carton after it has been opened by the consumer. Various forms of prior art tab separator elements are described in Wuerthner U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,090,520, Champlin 3,176,902, Manizza 4,029,204 and Wood 4,186,867.
Tab separator elements are formed from cutout portions of the bottom wall of a paperboard carton. Before the bottler fills the carton, he bends the tabs along a fold line to a vertical orientation. The tabs are of sufficient height to extend between adjacent bottles, and pairs of tabs cooperate to prevent glass-to-glass contact and bottle breakage. The tabs also apply pressure to the base of the bottle to help hold the bottle securely in place inside the carton after it has been sealed.
In the prior art, the opening between a pair of tabs into which a bottle fit was the same width whether measured between the front, middle or rear sections of the tabs. Because the opening must be slightly less than the bottle diameter to insure a snug fit, a problem arises if the bottle to be packaged is not properly aligned with the opening. If there is misalignment, the bottle may strike a tab element in such a way that it fails to enter the carton. This problem is alievated in the present invention because front sections of the tabs flare outwardly creating a wider opening into which the bottle can fit.
A second problem one encounters with tabs of the prior art is that they eventually cease to hold bottles firmly in place inside the carton. The result of this is that quite often when a consumer opens the carton to remove a bottle, another bottle falls out and breaks. The problem stems from loss of resiliency attributable to fatigue of the paperboard material from which the tab is formed. The arcuately shaped fold line of the present invention maintains tab resiliency and insures that the tabs apply continuous pressure to the bottle base.
A third drawback of prior art tabs is that they often tear or disfigure a bottle's paper label. Bottlers usually apply labels to their products just before they pack the bottles into the carton, and in most cases the glue on the back of the label has not had sufficient time to dry. If a damp label snags on a tab separator element, it is easily torn or disfigured. Wood U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,867 describes a tab designed to reduce label tearing and disfigurement, but it does not completely overcome the problem. By rounding and angling the leading edges of the tabs, however, the present invention significantly reduces the incidence of label snagging.
It is an object of the present invention therefore to make packaging bottles into the carton easier and to reduce the incidence of bottles striking the separator tabs and failing to enter the carton.
A further object of the invention is to provide a more resilient tab designed to reduce fatigue of the paperboard carton material and thereby to better hold bottles securely in place within the carton.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a tab separator element which overcomes the problem of disfiguring and tearing bottle labels.